What is an ADE anyway?

Lindsay Lindstrom is an Academic Developer Evangelist with Microsoft based in Pennsylvania. In 2005, she graduated with a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Southern California. During her time at USC, she worked with ABC and Wells Fargo supporting their web properties. In her current role she educates, excites and empowers students and faculty about technology and its career possibilities, and she loves her job!

Part 3 of 9: Design Aesthetics

For developers, a common obstacle on the road to game publishing success is DESIGN.

If considering design isn’t part of your game development strategy, your game will not be successful. Think about the mobile games you love (or researched as part of the planning process discussed in Part 2), or how you choose games/apps to download or purchase. Aesthetics is always a consideration.

“Questions about whether design is necessary or affordable are quite beside the point: design is inevitable. The alternative to good design is bad design, not no design at all.”

– Book Design: A Practical Introduction by Douglas Martin

Working with developers, I often see that design is an afterthought or left to chance…it’ll take care of itself. The first time I heard the quote by Douglas Martin, I realized that I couldn’t just hand off design to someone else, that I had to deal with it, because it’s inevitable.

So, how do you deal with design if you have no design skills? One obvious answer is to find a designer, but where/how? Like I mentioned in the last post, you’re starting a company so you will need to invest in talent. Many app developers have found success in using freelance artists to create assets for their apps via a site like Elance or Craigslist. If you don’t have the money to invest, you could post to trade services – your technical know-how for some design time. Or form a partnership and share a percentage of revenue (of course, this will require some legal work). Another venue is to find some eager design students who are looking to build their portfolios. Lastly, Microsoft’s App Builder program provide some free designer support, no strings attached! No matter what way you find some design help, my point is that you have to do SOMETHING.

Windows 8 UX guidelines, case studies and downloadable design assets (including Photoshop templates) are available on design.windows.com. The UX Guidelines are also available to download in PDF format.